News

Palo Alto: JJ&F must close to make way for College Terrace project

By Jason Green

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
08/30/2013 12:16:01 AM PDT

Updated:
08/30/2013 06:03:46 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Ronnie Khoury, right, tells sales representative Mindy Katz what beers to order at JJ&F Food Store in Palo Alto on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013. The Khoury family, which has operated the popular market since March 2011, was recently told to vacate the premises by Sept. 19.
Photo by Jason Green

The Khoury family, which has operated JJ&F Food Store at 520 College Ave. since March 2011, said Thursday they've lost their month-to-month lease. They have to be out by Sept. 19.

"It sucks," Ronnie Khoury said as he rang up a steady stream of customers, adding that everyone who works at the store will lose their job.

But the 30-day notice suggests that the long-stalled College Terrace Centre project is finally moving forward. In 2009, the city council approved plans for 40,000 square feet of "Class A" office space, a new 8,000-square-foot grocery and eight units of affordable housing.

JJ&F Food Store, a fixture in Palo Alto for more than six decades, occupies one of four parcels that make up the 1.15-acre project site.

College Terrace Centre developer Patrick Smailey recently told the city he is close to securing the financing needed to break ground, senior planner Russ Reich said in a phone interview.

Smailey did not immediately return a message left for him at his office.

Khoury said the eviction wasn't entirely unexpected, but he thought the family would be considered as a tenant for the new market or at least given more time to wind things down.

"The surprise was how quick it was, how it just kind of caught us off guard, the lack of communication," he said.

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Although his family won't be part of the project, Khoury said he was pleased that it appeared to be moving forward.

"It's been delayed so long," he said.

But some customers were outraged Thursday to learn that the family was being shown the door.

"It is total B.S. that these guys are getting evicted," said Tommy Wood, a local resident who stopped by to pick up ice cream and applesauce. "This whole area is becoming prefab, throwaway, disposable, corporate crap."

Others have called on Smailey to give the family more time.

"At a minimum, they should be provided sufficient time to transition out of the space without incurring hardship," College Terrace neighborhood resident Fred Balin wrote in an Aug. 21 letter to Smailey.

"Beyond that, the market should be allowed to continue in operation as long as possible and as long as the Khourys are willing."

The family, meanwhile, is planning to run the store through Sept. 19.

"They're still relying on us. They might not have a clue what's going on. Not everybody reads the local papers," Khoury said about his regular customers. "People still need their bread and their milk and their steaks. They've gotta eat. They've gotta drink. We're gonna run it until, you know, we get to that final day and they say, 'Alright guys, get the heck out.'"

The family runs similar neighborhood stores in Half Moon Bay and Windsor, but they aren't capable of absorbing the employees who will be laid off.

"They're established. We can't just go work there," said Khoury, adding that many of his employees have families. His own wife is due to give birth to his third son the day before the lease expires.

The only other business left on the project site, World Centric, has also received an eviction notice. However, the provider of compostable plates and utensils was already planning a move, said CEO and founder Aseem Das. A new office was opened this week in Petaluma.

"I think the timing was almost perfect," said Das.

It's been an up-and-down year for grocery stores in Palo Alto. In April, Miki's Farm Fresh Market was shuttered after a run that lasted less than six months; Grocery Outlet has since been named as a replacement. Meanwhile, the Fresh Market opened its second California store at Edgewood Plaza.

The JJ&F name will likely disappear with the Khoury family's eviction, but a similar neighborhood market must take its place, Reich said. That was a condition of the city council's approval of the College Terrace Centre project.

Khoury said his family would do it all over again.

"We don't regret coming into this place, doing what we did and making a living, making friends -- people I consider my family nowadays," Khoury said. "There are no regrets at all."